Parliament released five names of candidates for Iraqi Kurdistan presidency
Iraqi Kurdistan parliament, Erbil. 2017. Photo: Screengrab/NRT TV
HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament on Sunday announced the official names of the presidential candidates.
The Kurdish parliament released five names including current Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who is the candidate of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Barzani will also have the support of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Change Movement (Gorran), and is seen as the prohibitive frontrunner.
The other four candidates said to be independent are Omed Abdulsalam Qadir, Mohammed Hama Salih Omer, Rebwar Aziz Mostafa, and Hiwa Abdulla Khidr.
“The Kurdistan Region’s presidency releases names of the candidates who have the legal conditions and nominated themselves for the post of Kurdistan Region’s President in accordance with provision 3 of Article 4 in the law of reactivating Kurdistan Region’s Presidency institution and the amendment of the way of electing a president until the approval of constitution,” the statement read.
The Kurdistan Islamic Group, the Kurdistan Islamic Union and the New Generation Movement said last week that it would neither field a candidate nor support Barzani, calling the decision to reactivate the law a mistake.
The Kurdistan Parliament opened the three-day nomination period on May 12 and lasted three days.
On May 6, the Kurdistan Parliament approved legislation that reactivates the Kurdistan Region’s Presidency.
The post was previously held from 2005 to 2017 by Masoud Barzani, who stepped down in the aftermath of the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
On August 20, 2015 Barzani’s term as president of Kurdistan has expired but he refused to step down and remains unofficially in office for more than two years despite protests and demonstration against Barzani across Kurdistan region. He also closed the parliament and prevented speaker from entering Erbil.
In September 2018, the autonomous Kurdistan Region held its parliamentary election, with parties competing for 111 seats in total. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won the election by securing 45 seats and was followed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) with 21 seats and Gorran (Change) with 12.
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